A blog dedicted to the history of arcade video games from the bronze and golden ages (1971-1984).

Friday, July 5, 2013

For-Play Manufacturing

Here's a question for you. What was
the second mass-produced coin-op video game ever made (after Computer Space)? Most would answer Pong, but that isn't the one I'm
thinking of. And no, I'm not talking about Galaxy
Game; that wasn't mass produced. The game I'm thinking of is Star Trek by Burbank's For-Play
Manufacturing, released (allegedly) in September of 1972, a full two months
before Pong's official release
(though prototype versions of Pong had
been in the field for some time prior [since August, if memory serves[). Star Trek was supposedly a straight
clone of Computer Space. The game
featured an upright cabinet and a crude joystick control device. It also
featured a logo and cabinet art that looked suspiciously like they came from a
certain NBC television series. According to legend For-Play had never bothered
to get the rights to the TV series Star
Trek so when the producers found out about the game, production came to a
rapid halt[1].
Unfortunately, little is known about the game and even less about the company
that made it. Even the release date is unconfirmed. I think I first came across
the date in Bill Kurtz's Arcade Treasures.
I think he even listed the date as September 29, 1972 but if so, I'm not sure
where he got it. The flyer on TAFA has a date of September 19, 1972 stamped on
it but I don't know if that's a release date or not. For-Play is one of those
companies that I'd LOVE to know more about. As the second major third major
video game manufacturer (Atari was incorporated before they were) and the first
clone maker (or at least the first known one) there's bound to be a story
there. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down much info on the
company and the principals are likely not around anymore to ask. I did manage
to find some info on their founder and there's certainly a story there but I
know next to nothing about For-Play itself. Here is what little I do know.

Incorporated in Sunnyvale on July
20, 1972 (a month after Atari) For-Play Manufacturers Corporation was founded
by Henry Leyser, along with Mickey Greenman and Bill Lewis. Leyser was born in
Berlin in 1922 to a Jewish family. He studied medicine until the Nazis came to
power and banned Jews from public school. Leyser then attended the Berlin
Hebrew University until April of 1939 when his parents, seeing the handwriting
on the wall, fled with Henry to Shanghai, which, along with Spain, was the only
location unconditionally open to Jews. On the ship to China , Henry contracted
appendicitis and when the family arrived in Shanghai there were few doctors to
be found. Tragically, two siblings stayed behind in Germany and never made it
out alive. A brother was caught at the French border and killed and a sister
died in Auschwitz. In Shanghai, the Leysers lived in a refugee camp and Henry
got work as a deejay. After Pearl Harbor, however, he lost his job when the
Japanese Occupation forces forced Jews into a disease-ridden area of the city
that became known as the Shanghai Ghetto. With no job and little money, the
Leyser's nearly starved but they somehow managed to survive. After the war,
they moved to San Franciscowhere Henry
briefly worked as a shoe salesman before getting into the coin-op biz via a job
selling shuffle alleys for Mills Sales. He then began operating his own route
with pinball games, shuffle alleys, and jukeboxes. After acquiring a few more
routes, he renamed his company A.C.A. Sales and Service in 1952. Three years
later he merged with a company called BBC. Leyser became famous for his
elaborate MOA exhibits. Salesmen would wear costumes with a different theme
every day and Leyser would hire the tallest models he could find to pass out
literature. In 1965, Leyser negotiated a deal with German jukebox maker NSM to
begin selling their machines in the U.S.Jukebox sales were strong at first but by the early 1970s, the market
had softened considerably and Leyser was looking for a new line of business. He
saw it in the fledgling video game industry. Together with Mickey Greenman (an
A.C.A. sales executive and 18-year veteran of United Press International) and
Bill Lewis, he formed For-Play Manufacturing. For-Play didn't last much longer
after Star Trek. In 1973 they
produced a pair of Pong clones - Rally (March) and Sport Center (unveiled at the MOA). They also made non-video arcade pieces like Bio Computer and a dice-themed rifle/wall game
called Las Vegas Gallery. By the end of 1973
they had apparently disappeared.

Here's a photo of For-Play's booth at the 1973 MOA show:

[1] The entire story is unconfirmed. It
also appears that the folks at Paramount had failed to secure copyrights to
Star Trek themselves and probably had no legal way to prevent people from using
the name.

Bonus PicturesBelow are some more photos from the 1973 MOA show. This was the first show to really feature video games. Nutting was at the 1971 show and Atari was at the 1972 show (I don't know if For-Play was there or not) but that was about it, AFAIK.The 1973 show had several manufacturers. Sadly, I didn't find a picture of the Atari booth. I have to apologize for the lousy quality of the photos. I got them while perusing back issues of Cash Box at a library. All I had with me was my iPhone and the issues were bound, so I coudn't get any really good pictures.AMUTRONICS:

Keith! You've done an excellent job with this entry, really.So much interesting infos about FOR-PLAY and the year 1973 on the MOA.The case is this: I've coud gained the SPORT CENTER and do not have knew nothing about this curious machine till i have the luck to found your blog! :))